Gimme a weather doldrum cure

This visionary could be the next Bill Gates. Well, even I have the vision but not the no how. I want someone to find a foolproof instant and self-operating cure for weather doldrums. Yesterday was the worst of the worst days of winter.

It stayed that way all day long until about 5 p.m. with continuous slushing, raining, blowing, snowing. Then, for about 10 minutes, it quit. Up to that time, I had done everything I could think of to pretend I didn't care. I vacuumed. I finished writing a story. I transplanted tomatoes.

Still, the ugliness prevailed. I finally gave up on the pretense, sat on the couch and watched TV, paying attention at the end of a couple of basketball games but dozing during an anti-Wal Mart documentary.

Finally, I pulled myself from the couch and told Bill I was getting in the car and going somewhere---maybe to Wal Mart----but anywhere to nudge myself out of the day-long weather-induced stupor. I would be back at 3 for Selection Sunday.

I drove past Wal Mart, gased up at the Chevron Station, drove out Lakeshore Drive to Spade Road and felt sorry for the people who live out there. Their snow is deeper and things looked much more dreary than on this side the river.

The rain and snow continued. I stopped at a convenience store and bought a cup of coffee, figuring it might get some happy juices going. No dice.

I drove home, talked to Annie on the cell phone and learned that their St. Paddy's Day run in Seattle was just as miserable as our Ides of March in Sandpoint. Snow and rain, she said. "I've been outside in the cold enough for one day," she added.

She said the sun was out, though. That gave me hope.

How many hours does it take the Seattle sun to find Sandpoint, and if it does, would that happen in the middle of the night while I was sleeping? Not a good thought.

Well, things got better during the Selection Sunday Show. Our ZAGS are going to Portland to play the Zips of Akron on Thursday afternoon. The thought of Zags and Zips made me smile, but then even Selection Sunday ended too soon.

I did my outside stuff, putting the horses in and going for a walk during that ten-minute rain respite. I passed the Johnsons (the first Johnson's house, that is---we have two on our road); then the thunder started, then the rain, then the wind. I was soaked to the bone by the time I got back to the house.

The clothes went by the stove, and I fixed some dinner. We finished eating, and, lo and behold, the rain had stopped once more. I scurried around, put on my boots and my snow pants over the sweat pants---the jeans were still wet. Bill drove the 4-wheeler down lane to get wood, and I followed with the dogs.

The change was instant. Suddenly, I felt alive again, like I wanted to conquer the world. I ran with the dogs through the hayfield, where snow was still packed enough in most places for me to avoid sinking to the ground below. We moved on to the woods, and as dogs weaved in and out of the trees with lightning speed, I reveled in the joy of feeling alive again---for the first time all day long.

So, recounting those mundane events of a dreary day do have a purpose. If we can snap out of the doldrums that fast when ucky weather changes to bearable weather, why can't there be some remedy designed for the populace who live in areas where the weather weights them down, shackling their motivation, day after day month after month?

I know there ARE those special lights and there are the health clubs and there are possibilities of moving somewhere else. All good but not always practical. And, I'm certainly not advocating drug treatment. Surely, there must be some brilliant person who can come up with this cure. If it were to happen, imagine the possibilites.

All that slogging around and complaining could end. Things could get done. Our society could be so much more efficient. What a great world this could be if we could just turn off all that ails us when the weather does the mood switch on us.

I know I'm a dreamer, but every time I notice instantaneous positive or negative changes in my attitude due to weather---I figure there must be a cure. Anyone? Anyone?

In the meantime, today's dry, warm air looks and feels much better, and I've got people to see, apples to shovel.

Happy Monday.